Information and commentary about the struggle for democracy in the African kingdom of Swaziland

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

KING’S AIRPORT ‘NOT READY UNTIL 2016’

The Swazi Observer,
the newspaper owned by King Mswati III, is once again talking up the prospects
that the building of Sikhuphe International Airport might be completed soon so
it can open early next year.

The airport, dubbed King Mswati’s ‘vanity project’ by
critics, was due to open in 2010 but failed
to, and apologists for the project have been claiming it was ‘just about to
open’ ever since.

The latest is acting director of the Millennium Project
Management Unit (PMU) Patrick Mnisi who claimed, ‘The most part of the airport
has already been completed.’

The Observer
reported him saying the project would be handed over to the Swaziland Civil
Aviation Association (SWACAA) in March 2013. Then, it would take SWACAA three
months to train the staff so they were ready for the actual opening day.

Mnisi said the only thing that could disrupt the project
would be lack of finance.

But, that is not true. In June 2012 SWACAA raised doubts
that the airport would be able to receive aircraft before at least 2016 and
nothing has happened since then to change that.

SWACAA Marketing and Corporate Affairs Director Sabelo
Dlamini told Swazi media that at least three airlines from different countries
had ‘shown interest’ in using Sikhuphe, but declined to name them. He remained
optimistic about the prospects for Sikhuphe and said SWACAA was talking to
airlines in other countries as well.

But, he also revealed that it could take three years for
an airline to actually start using the airport once it had decided to do so.
‘Normally, airline operators need about three years to prepare for such an
exercise and we are nursing hopes that those we have approached will consider
our proposals. What I can safely say is that we have three potential airlines
ready to operate from the airport,’ he told the Swazi Observer.

Although he did not say so, this meant it was highly
unlikely that any significant air traffic would use Sikhuphe before at least
2016.

Dlamini also revealed that no
agreement had been reached with Swaziland’s neighbours South Africa and
Mozambique about which routes planes would be allowed to take in and out of
Sikhuphe.

The building of Sikhuphe has been controversial because there is no
obvious need for it. Swaziland already has an underused airport at Matsapha and
no needs-analysis was ever completed to demonstrate why another airport should
be built.

Most of the impetus for the building of the airport has come from King
Mswati, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and is keen to show
that his kingdom is on its way to becoming a ‘first world’ nation.